(2022-12-06) Freaking Out About ChatGPT part I

Inside-Higher-Ed: Freaking Out About ChatGPT. Over the weekend, lots of folks working in academia learned that the OpenAI, ChatGPT interface is now capable of producing convincing (though uninspired) college student quality writing to just about any prompt within seconds.

So what are we supposed to do about this? I have a number of ideas, but to start, I think we should collectively see this technology as an opportunity to re-examine our practices and make sure how and what we teach is in line with our purported pedagogical values.

I fed ChatGPT a bunch of sample questions from past AP exams in literature, history and political science, and it crushed them. Now, in many cases I did not know enough to evaluate the accuracy of any of the information, but as we know, accuracy is not necessarily a requirement to do well on an AP exam essay.

What does this say about the kind of work we allow to stand in for student proficiency when it can be done by an algorithm that literally understands nothing about content?

Rather than letting students explore the messy and fraught process of learning how to write, we have instead incentivized them to behave like algorithms, creating simulations that pass surface-level muster. Teaching through templates like the five-paragraph essay, or even more targeted frameworks like those in best-selling composition text They Say/I Say prevents students from developing the skills, attitudes, knowledge and habits of mind of writers, the writer’s practice. (Program of be Programmed)

This has not only harmed student writing abilities, but their attitudes toward writing and even school as a whole.

There’s a lot of specific adaptations we can make to a world with this technology in it.

As stated previously, we can give students learning experiences of intrinsic interest and extrinsic worth so they’re not tempted into doing an end run.

We can change the way we grade so that the fluent but dull prose that ChatGPT can churn out does not actually pass muster. We can require students to demonstrate synthesis.